Photos / Tim Greenway and Courtesy / WEX
WEX Chair and CEO Melissa Smith, left, and Chief Human Resources Officer Melanie Tinto.
Updated: March 24, 2020
WEX to limit hiring to 'business-critical positions'
WEX Inc. (NYSE: WEX), a Portland-based provider of corporate payment solutions with more than 5,000 employees worldwide, is scaling back on hiring while adding benefits for current workers coping with the coronavirus crisis.
In a company-wide virtual meeting Monday, Chair and CEO Melissa Smith and Chief Human Resources Officer Melanie Tinto informed staff about the changes.
"We will be restricting hiring with some exceptions, and will continue to hire business critical positions," the company told Mainebiz via email after the meeting.
Less than a week ago, the company was looking to fill around 300 positions globally and 100 in Maine. WEX currently employs 1,500 people in the state.
To ease the pressure on current employees, the company is implementing an emergency paid leave program that includes two weeks of additional paid time off in response to the crisis.
"The goal is to help provide better care for our employees so that they in turn can provide better care to themselves and others," the company said via email.
For employees in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom, WEX has also implemented an emergency backup family care program, which it seeking to extend globally as well.
That program entitles employees to $100 per day for up to 10 days — tax-free — to cover the cost of a caregiver or caregivers of their choice.
Tinto told Mainebiz in an interview last week that the company had not set an end date for the remote working arrangement.
"Fortunately, we work at a fintech company, so our technology is pretty strong," she said, noting that 95% of WEX's workforce was enabled to work from home before the current situation. The company then acted quickly to get laptops and other technology to people in countries previously without those capabilities.
The company also did some test-days with employees before transitioning everyone to remote.
Asked about the challenges of that transition, Tinto said there hadn't been anything major, though there had been a spike on call volumes to WEX's own help desk.
In terms of how the day-to-day operations have changed, she said that managers make sure to communicate with employees by email on a day-to-day basis. That's complemented by virtual live meetings, and regular status updates of what the company is doing globally.
The 20-plus-year human resources veteran is also adjusting to the new circumstances, saying, "I've never had an instance where it's affected a whole company to this extent."
"The unique part of this situation," she added, "is not only are our employees working from home, they also have a variety of other factors influencing their lives. They all have kids and spouses, and other people they care for, and we want to make sure people have the space to do what they need to live, work and thrive."
Financials
In its latest guidance issued March 3, WEX said it expects first-quarter 2020 revenue to be around 2% to 3% lower than its earlier projection, assuming that trends in February continue in March.
The company also said that while its U.S. health and corporate payments divisions are performing better than expected, travel and, to a lesser extent, shipping activity and fuel prices are being affected negatively by the coronavirus.
But WEX noted that the impact on second-quarter and fiscal 2020 results cannot yet be reasonably estimated given the magnitude, duration and global reach of the pandemic. In February, WEX posted greater-than-expected earnings with an upbeat outlook on growing market share.
WEX typically releases first-quarter results in late April or early May, setting a date about two weeks in advance.
WEX shares closed Tuesday at $83.23, down 1.93% on the day and 55% lower than a year ago. But late Wednesday morning the stock price had rebounded to $101.57, a gain of 18.34%, amid a general upswing in the market. WEX has a market capitalization of $3.6 billion.
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